This article was first published in "The Barge",
the newsletter of the Barony of Three Rivers, Calontir.

Did
You Know it's Period? Part II: Vegetables and Fruits

by
HL Rowan Houndskeeper

Continuing the previous article's
discussion on medieval foods that are easy, tasty, and actually very "modern",
in Part II we cover recipes for several vegetable and fruit dishes.

There are two
main things to remember about fruits and vegetables in period cooking.

1) Unless dried, pickled, or
otherwise preserved, fruits and vegetables were only available seasonally.
There was no fresh asparagus in the winter or fresh peach pie in the spring.

2) New World plants were not
available for most of our period.

A few New World items started to
appear (usually as "novelty" foods) on the menus of the rich in the late
medieval/renaissance period, but before 1492 they were not available at all in Europe. So make sure that the fruits and
vegetables you select are all European, Asian, or other Old World varieties. New
World vegetables to be wary of include corn (maize), potatoes, tomatoes,
peppers (the hot or sweet varieties of the Capsicum genus), and most of our
common bean varieties (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus" title=Phaseolus>Phaseolusgenus
including lima, butter, navy, kidney, black, pinto, and the standard
french green bean P. vulgaris). Confusion can occur
because Europeans used words such as corn, peppers,green beans, etc., in their recipes, but they weren't referring to the same plants
that we as Americans use these words for today.

Pesen =
Peas

Perry of pesoun. Take pesoun and seth hem fast, and couere
hem, til thei berst; thenne take hem up and col hem thugh a cloth. Take
oynouns and mynce hem, and seeth hem in the same sewe, and oile therewith; cast
therto sugar, salt and safroun, and seeth hem wel therafter, and serue hem
forth.

Form of Cury (14th c. English)

Translation:

Perry of Peas. Take peas and boil them covered till they
burst; then drain through a cloth. Take onions and mince them, and boil them
in the same soup with some oil. Then add sugar, salt and saffron and boil [all
ingredients together], and serve them.

Redaction:

2 lbs fresh shelled (or frozen) peas

2 small onions, minced

3 Tbls olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

pinch of saffron (optional)

Place peas and onions in a pot with water and bring to a
boil. Reduce heat, add olive oil, salt and sugar. Cook until peas are tender.
Drain and serve

The
nursury rhyme "peas porage hot, peas porage coldÉ" may be Victorian,
but peas were a common vegetable dish in Europe during our period, with
numerous recipes available. This is perhaps a little looser of a redaction
than some of the previous recipes we presented - the original suggests that
this dish may have been more of a pottage of mashed peas (due to the "boil
them till they burst" line in the original recipe). This would produce a
dish similar to some modern English methods of serving "mushy" peas
as a side to roast beef.

Take
apples and boil them, and pass them through a strainer into a pot; then add
almond milk and honey, and grated bread, saffron, sandalwood, and a little salt
and put all in a pot and let it boil, stirring it well, and serve it forth.

Redaction:

6 large apples

1/2 c honey

1 c almond milk

bread crumbs

spices as desired (cinnamon, saffron, etc)

Boil apples until soft, then drain. Mash in a food
processor until smooth. Place in a large soup pot and add almond milk, honey,
and spices. Cook on low stirring every few minutes until completely hot, add
bread crumbs to thicken to desired consistency.

Applesauce seems to be another one
of those extremely common recipes across European cultures. Some of the
recipes are quite simple, such as the Koge Bog (Danish 1616) recipe that
basically calls for diced apples to be boiled with sugar. Others are more
complex like the Vivendier (French 15th c.) recipe that calls for the apples to
be sauted in butter after they have been boiled – in effect cooking the
apples twice. In addition, while many of the period recipes, such as those
presented here, are quite similar to the modern recipe for fresh applesauce,
there are other period applesauce recipes that might seem very odd to the
modern diner. An example of this type is the Wel ende edelike spijse (Dutch 15th
c.) recipe for "Applesauce in Lent" that calls for fish liver as one
of the ingredients.

I leave it to
you to experiment with your own redactions of the Danish and French applesauce
recipes presented here (below) to see if you believe them to be different
enough from the English recipe that you might like them better.

The Vivendier: A Fifteenth-Century French Cookery
Manuscript (15th c. French)

Translation:

To make an Apple Sauce: Get peeled apples, cut into
pieces, then set to boil in pure fresh water. When they are thoroughly cooked,
drain off all of the water and saut them in good fresh butter; get fresh cream and well beaten egg yolks
and saffron, and salt judiciously. When serving, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar
over top.

Take as you have available: leaf lettuce, spinach, parsley,
sage, mint, fennel, cress, rosemary, garlic, scallions, green onions, chives,
leeks, borage, purslane, organic violets, and/or any other herbs or editable
flowers you have. Wash them and chop them fine. Dress with a little salt and
an oil and vinegar dressing.

This period recipe is basically a lettuce
and spinach salad containing various fresh greens, herbs, and editable flowers.
Use only fresh herbs! A couple of other notes: 1) use only leaf lettuce
varieties such as romaine, red lacey, etc. – iceberg lettuce is not
period. 2) porrettes is translated by
some as green onions, scallions, or young leeks – use any or all as you
have available. 3) also note that I do not recommend using rue, as in
the original recipe, because it can induce labor in pregnant women, and many
people have a dermatitis reaction to the leaf oils of the plant.

Like
applesauce and peas, there are a large number of period salad recipes from
nearly every culture across our time period, most of which seem to call for an
oil and vinegar dressing. The basic redaction for all of these recipes boils
down to take what leaf lettuce and other greens you have (such as spinach,
cress, endive, or mustard), add fresh herbs (such as mint, parsley, thyme, or sage),
and sometimes add nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, or pine nuts) or fruit (such
as raisins, oranges, or lemons) or possibly other vegetables (such as cucumbers
or pea pods), or add hard boiled eggs or cheese, or even flowers (organic
editable varieties only – and make sure they have not been exposed to
pesticides), then dress your salad with a simple vinaigrette. Of course, this
is pretty much how we make salads today. For comparison against the Form of
Cury (English 14th c.) recipe above, I've included three other period recipes
for you to play with. But in the end, salad is salad, whether medieval or
modern.

Other
Period Sallet Recipes

On Preparing Lettuce

É It is eaten cooked or raw. Raw lettuce does not need
to be washed if it is prepared in this way for they are more healthful than
what has been washed in water; put in a dish, sprinkle with ground salt, and a
little oil and pour a little more vinegar and eat it right away. There are those
who add a little mint and parsley to this preparation so that it does not seem
too bland and the excessive chill of the lettuce does not harm the stomach.

Platina: On Honest Indulgence (1475,
Venice)

On
Preparing a Salad of Several Greens

A
preparation of several greens is made with lettuce, bugloss, mint, catmint,
fennel, parsley, sisymbrium, origan, chervil, cicerbita which doctors call
teraxicon, plantain, morella, and several other fragarant greens, well washed
and pressed and put in a large dish. Sprinkle them with a good deal of salt and
blend with oil; it should be eaten and well chewed because wild greens are
tough. This sort of salad needs a little more oil than vinegar. It is more
suitable in winter than in summer, because it requires much digestion and is
stronger in winter.

Platina: On Honest Indulgence (1475,
Venice)

To Make a Sallet of All Kinds of Herbs.

Take your herbs and pick them very fine into faire water
and pick your flowers by themselves. Wash them all clean and swing them in a
strainer and when you put them in a dish, mingle them with cucumbers or lemons,
pared and sliced. And scrape sugar, and put in vinegar and oil, and throw the
flowers on the top of the sallet, and garnish the dish about of every sort of
the aforesaid things and hard eggs, boiled and laid about the dish and upon the
sallat.

The Good Huswifes Jewell (1596, English)

References:

Curye
on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including
the Forme of Cury). Hieatt, Constance B.
and Sharon Butler. The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University
Press, 1985.

Koge Bog: Containing a
hundred useful pieces, which are about brewing, baking, cooking, aquavit and
mead to make, as is useful in house holding &c. which before not in our
Danish Language is issued in print. Printed in Copenhagen, by Salomone
Sartorio, 1616. Translated by M. Forest at
www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/cooking/1616.html

Platina.
On Honest Indulgence (De Honesta Voluptatae). A little work on foods and honest
indulgence by the very learned man Platina: Printed with the work and care of
Father Laurentius de Aguila for the Distinguished Duke Peter Mocenicus. Venice, 1475. Evans,
Susan J. Falconwood Press. 1989.

The
Good Housewifes's Jewel. by Thomas Dawson, 1596. with an introduction by Maggie
Black. Southover Press. 1996.

Copyright 2008 by Teresa Roberts, 9900 Juniper Ct. St
Louis MO 63123. <tkroberts at toast.net>. Permission is granted for
republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited.
Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the
author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would
appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the
Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track
which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.